Best option to have category "hidden" on Discourse, but otherwise accessible if you have the link?

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AI-generated summary

The discussion revolves around finding the best option to have a category “hidden” on Discourse, but still accessible via a link. jordan-violet wants to embed comments in other webpages using Discourse, but doesn’t want the category to show up in the category view or latest topics.

Moin suggests default muting a category, which suppresses it from /latest and only appears in a muted section at /categories. pfaffman adds that having topics unlisted by default might be the solution, and it might be possible to achieve this with a plugin.

jordan-violet likes the idea, but needs to confirm if users will still receive notifications for replies and discussions within those topics. pfaffman and JammyDodger confirm that users will still receive notifications, even if the category is muted.

Heliosurge suggests combining a theme component with a muted category, and Moin provides instructions on how to default mute a category, which can be found in the admin settings by searching for default categories muted.

1

File sharing sites, video upload sites, they all have a feature where you can have an “unlisted” file/video—the video/file exists, anyone can access it, it’s just not published anywhere.

I am looking to accomplish the same thing with Discourse categories and topics, and here’s why:
We are looking to use the Discourse option of embedding comments in other webpages, especially useful with Discourse auto-generating the topics. We plan to embed comments in all of our documentation pages, so each page can be discussed at the bottom by posting in the comments.

We don’t want this category of topics to show up the Discourse category view, latest topics, etc. though.

Any ideas on the best way to accomplish this with Discourse today?

2

You can default mute a category. Then it is suppressed at /latest and only appears in a muted section at /categories

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There is also a theme component to hide them from /categories Hide Muted Categories

3

If the topics are unlisted, it won’t matter that the category is visible.

Sounds like what you want is some means to Embed Discourse comments on another website via Javascript but have those topics be unlisted by default.

It might be possible to have the automation plugin do that or perhaps a small plugin automatically unlist topics created in a given category.

Having it default muted might also be all you need.

4

I really like this! At first glance this sounds like it may be what I need. I need to see if people would still get notifications for replies and discussions within those topics still, though.

Otherwise, this looks promising!

5

I believe that they do still get notifications, it just doesn’t show up in searches.

6

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7

As a recent example, I Bert default muted the #site-feedback:forum-summaries category, and everybody still got lots of notifications for @mentions and linked topics from those… :slight_smile:

We had to jump through a couple of contortions to limit them, so I’m reasonably confident notifications still make it out of a muted category. :slight_smile:

8

Oh, so you were the culprit for that! :joy:

9

There doesn’t seem to be a Reaction for looks a bit guilty. :slight_smile:

10

Time for :jammy: to be born!

11

A combination of maybe this Customization > Theme component and mute category for all maybe?

12

I may be missing the setting, but where do you default mute a category?

13

/admin/settings and then search for default categories muted.

14

Ah, here I was looking in the category settings.